Mama I’m a Big Girl Now
Posted By Kathleen David on August 19, 2005
Yesterday was a Caroline day with a lot of Ariel’s needs mixed in. We had a number of errands for both girls and spent most of the day doing so. Ariel did pretty well at her scholarship bowling league. She and I packed her for her trip to her mothers. (She pulled the clothes and items she thought she needed to take and I put them all in the suitcase for her so everything would fit. Caroline helped put stuff in the suitcase.) I think she is racking up more miles in the air this summer than a majority of kids her age. Once she gets back from this trip, she takes a deep breath, goes to her high school orientation and is back out on a plane to Atlanta for DragonCon.
I am posting the potty training saga behind the cut to not upset people’s delicate sensibilities.
I am grateful that she made this small step into a much larger world.
We have been encouraging Caroline to start using her potty. She has sat on it but each time quickly wanted off. Peter suggested I get her a book on using the potty since she loves to look at books and be read to on all kinds of subjects. I had the book out on a side table. Caroline picked it up and started flipping through it. I sat next to her and started to read it to her but she asked me not to. She looked at the pictures and stopped on a page were a little girl was sitting on her potty. I choose the book because the potty looked like Caroline’s potty. She points to the picture and looks at me.
“Caroline, ” I said, “She is going potty. Do you want to try to go potty?” She thinks about it for a short bit and nods. “OK.” I said, “Let’s go to the potty.” She got up and ran to the kitchen door bringing her potty book with her. I helped her out of her overalls and diaper. She sat down on the potty and looked at her book. There was some hopping on and off the potty but then she relaxed and started to pee in the potty. She was so startled that she tried to jump off the potty but I reassured her that she was fine and she should go pee in the potty. She peed a little more and then I wiped her and she repeated the motion herself. We made a big deal about her being a big girl and using the potty. She then hopped on and off the potty most of the rest of the evening.
My little girl Hailey is just starting potty training. It seems like just yesterday she was small enough to fit in one hand!
That is about the time I stopped using overalls. They are too hard for little ones to get them off in time. Dresses are REALLY easy and are still the favorite form of clothing in this house.
I’m grateful Mattie is fully potty trained. (Although I still need to remind her to flush and wash! 🙂
We’re certainly not up to the potty training stage yet — Katherine’s only just turning 1 (tomorrow!), but I’m curious as to how people decide when the time has come to start. It’ll be an interesting time in the long run, to be sure. (Nowadays we’re just glad she’s finally decided to sleep through the night most nights.)
TWL